Page 72 - Faith Personified

material pleasures. Thus, it is better to utilize it in good deeds.

Such a deep understanding is bound to increase your
generosity and benevolent acts. Thus, the increase in generosity
is not because of increase in wealth but due to the real
understanding that wealth is not a saviour but a destroyer.

Consider an example

A wealthy merchant gives money to a needy person to
commence some business and stand on his own feet, but the
needy prson loses all the money in illegal activities and is
sentenced by the Government for 4-5 years. Will you say
that the money given by the merchant sent him to prison?
Money was a mere instrument. Of course, without the money
he wouldn’t have been able to carry out the illegal activities,
but that doesn’t mean that he went to prison because of the

merchant’s money. He went to prison because of his
inappropriate and unethical behaviour.

Similarly, wealth is a mere instrument in contaminating your
mind. You cannot say that religion gives you wealth which
contaminates your mind. Just as the merchant’s role is just to
financially support the needy, religion’s role is just to provide
you with luxuries and wealth. Just as the destructive nature
and illegal activities exercised by wealth resulted in jail because

of one’s own inappropriate behaviour, here, too, the thought
process that favours luxuries is an outcome of the long-lasting
impressions of attachment which lead to a contaminated mind.

Since wealth has the capacity to spoil your mind and

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